Saturday, 13 September 2014

I forgot to take a before picture!! Oh never mind, here's the story so far...

This is a HUGE, antique mahogany chest of drawers, he weighs a ton - a friend has named him 'the beast'. Well OK, he's looking more friendly now with a coat of paint!

I wanted to make him more distressed than my usual level of shabbying up. The dark mahogany of the antique wood was just so dark, rich and generally gorgeous.

I mixed a custom colour - Duck Egg was too green and Antique Turquoise too bright, so I got the colour I wanted somewhere in the middle. He's been painted all over with a couple of coats and then some really scratchy work was done with sandpaper - looks more chippy.

The original handles were a disappointing brass replacement. Originally, the handles would have been large wooden 'buttons' and I've changed them back to glass buttons with antique hardware. Don't you love those legs???

The grain inside the drawers is really strong, so I've painted in a very neutral colour of cream and left them shabby too - but uplifted.

I'm going to miss him when he's gone. He's had a liberal dose of clear wax all over to create a soft shine and a small amount of dark wax added just to antique up a little bit - here and there...

A really amazing piece of furniture, full of character - I just love him to bits :-)

Monday, 2 June 2014

Oh hurruh for June - feels like summer now and I've been able to get outside as it's stopped raining.

I picked up this simple little washstand/ cupboard with one drawer over and wanted to turn it into something a little more rustic. Loving how it's finished up.

So here's how she started out...

You can see this would have been a cute piece of furniture in it's day, but fading away in the corner now and desperately in need of a new look.

I painted the insides of the cupboards and drawer in a Violet Grey chalk paint (it ain't pink) - nice that the cupboards are separate spaces..

The colour all over is a 'Duck Egg Blue' or in Autentico's colour range it's called 'Troubled Waters'. I've used gold gilding across the cupboard, drawers and feet.

Those original casters create just DARLING tootsies!

Actually, there was more work to this piece than immediately meets the eye - I needed to fill the holes from the original hardware after I removed them and then re-drill through and sand to ensure the new pulls were aligned properly.

Never a dull day... aren't these French Bee ceramic handles adorable?

I'm really pleased with the new rustic look of this piece - all finished with a bit of shabby sanding and sealed with clear wax :-)

Monday, 5 May 2014

I've just finished working on a couple of pieces for a customer. The beautiful dressing table was painted all over some time ago in a white emulsion. So I needed to get rid of all the bad paint, drips, tannin stains and flaking before giving it a new look.

The request was for Roman White and Foggy Venice chalk paint - everyone loves the combination of those colours.

The single door wardrobe looms over the dressing table and needed to have a matching paint job so the two pieces could go together into the guest room.

The hardware was changed for something a little prettier and the key and keyhole and hinges were given the gold leaf treatment.

Once finished, both pieces were given a wax varnish to protect the surfaces.

Although the wardrobe is quite plain, it's got enough white to uplift a room and not overwhelm the dressing table.

They look like a cute couple now!

I accentuated some of the design that had been lost in the emulsion white-out by dry brushing.

Part of the tops and the drawers were painted in the grey to bring out the shapes and give more definition to the pattern.

Really difficult to get the two pieces together in the shop - I'll update as soon as I can move things around... and hopefully get a pic in their new home later in the month.

Saturday, 19 April 2014

I'm always on the lookout for something unusual... and this is my Van Gogh Chiffonier do-over!

I'll try to explain the Van Gogh inspiration at the end of the blog - but first of all here's the cabinet before I started any work...

I was really interested in all the carving on this piece - I'm assuming it's Victorian... Chiffoniers were became popular as pieces of furniture to put 'things' in... and are smaller than sideboards.

The hardware was in bad shape - broken handles on the drawer...

Doors loose or coming away from the hinges. I wasn't really interested in keeping the doors, I thought the natural wood backing and shelves would look great painted with Troubled Water (Autentico's Duck Egg Blue).

This is how everything looked after a couple of coats all over with Autentico's 'Lemon' chalk paint. Actually it is much more lime - maybe unripe lemon.. but definitely NOT yellow.

Then I got started with the dark wax to bring out all that character.

I love the shade it becomes when the dark brown is added.

I've washed through the brown to let the lemon/lime come through.

It shows the carving really nicely.

The inside is left unwaxed - handles on the drawer have changed to white ceramic pumpkins.

The inside of the drawer is painted in the same duck egg colour - I love that green that could be blue - and finished with a shot of silver leaf across the top. The names of these paints are VERY confusing.

These photos show the colours off better than some of the others.

A rustic cabinet...

I love it :-) A great little character piece.

And here's Van Gogh's Chair - the colours inspired me. I saw the Duck Egg Blue background and that Old Lime painted wood of the chair. My finished work is a minute fraction of the price though, very affordable.